I love a lot of Abrams' work (Super8, Star Trek, Fringe), but I have to disagree about LOST. I really thought that show started great, carried that momentum for a few seasons, and ended like a giant turd. The last season consisted of them running from one end of the island to the other, basically filling time until the end church reveal. I found that it totally flew off the tracks, and it felt like they had no idea how to end it. And yeah, I understood what they were doing, they just didn't do it well.

I just read up on Atha Prime. No offense, but sounds like a pretty boring character to me. The whole series has ultimately been about Sith vs. Jedi, so the last thing I want to see is some warlord-type non Sith trying to re-establish the Empire.

I'd like to see the trilogy focused on:

- Luke working to re-establish the Jedi Order - Leia and Han trying to restore the Galactic Republic & Senate- The antagonists being the One Sith who have been hiding out and training on the Sith home planet of Korriban

If you think about it, this would be the perfect time for a Sith army to mobilize & reveal themselves. The Empire is broken and leaderless, the rebellion is still small, wounded, and too new to restore the republic, and most worlds are probably feeling isolated and on their own. The Sith could take a page from the Vong invasion and start conquering outer rim worlds without much retaliation. Depending on the timing, it could be up to a small restored Jedi Academy to help fend off a massive Sith invasion, which would make for some pretty amazing battle scenes. Imagine multipe sith vs. multiple jedi at one time or space battles with jedi vs. sith pilots. Lots of room for new characters there too.

I just read up on Atha Prime. No offense, but sounds like a pretty boring character to me.

Maybe, but the double-decker Imperial cruiser? What's not to love about that?

Really, I guess it comes down to Thrawn/Xizor, Sith redux, Vong or 'something else' as the likeliest options. Just for the sake of curiosity I'm tempted to see what would be behind Door #4, but then part of me thinks it could just as easily turn out to something silly like "cloud Galactus".

I actually think the Sith thing is my least favorite alternative, it just seems sort of played out at this point...I think the proliferation of EU Darths has sort of sapped my enthuiasm there.

That's what I liked about Thrawn I guess... Thrawn is simply smart. No special powers or anything. He's just smart, charismatic... It is as if Hitler had been killed and someone competent, intelligent, and not to be trifled with, took his place. At least that was how I always viewed the Palps Death/Thrawn Ascension aspect.

It's a way you can still incorporate the struggling New Republic angle (as Zahn did), the NJO coming about is easily mixed into there. You could also easily take from that, "bad Jedi" and put them on the Thrawn side of the fence... Bad force users are certainly established in the lore of the Saga at this point.

Not to say I think any of that is coming to fruition of course. I just like the idea, and doubt it'll ever get even a sniff of happening, aside from the NJO being set up in some way. I think that'll happen simply because it sort of has to in some way.

Yes, because if there is one thing the Clone Wars cartoon has shown us it's that people love when they focus on the trials and tribulations of the Republic Senate.

Ha! To clarify, I'm not thinking that would be a huge plot point - just a way to keep them busy doing something away from the action.

I love the Thrawn series and the X-Wing books from the EU, and yes I think a double-decker Star Destroyer would be cool. All that said, for me the real threat throughout the first 6 movies came from the manipulations of the Sith. The emperor was powerful because he had a huge army behind him, but both he and Vader were A-level threats as individuals as well. It's just hard for me to imagine some really smart or wicked military leader as a real threat to the new republic after six films with the Sith as the baddies. That would be like the Avengers taking on Loki and Thanos, then heading off to fight the Chinese military...just doesn't seem like a credible threat without the Sith or some dark jedi leading the charge in my opinion.

As long as Artoo and Threepio are still highly featured, I am on board for whatever they have in mind. Make no mistake, I would love to see a story that leaves room for Thrawn stuff to still fit (and maybe some neat animated versions of the Zahn stuff down the road) and for the timeframe we're looking at I could be on board with a Darth Caedus story, but I am more interested in a great story that adds to the emotional arc of the movies thus far (the fall, the redemption, the casting aside of the material world?) than in following any of the EU.

But, yeah, to count as Episodes VII - IX, it's gotta have the droids right there in the thick of it. That's Star Wars.

JJ wasn't my first choice (that would have been Del Toro) but after thinking about it, there a lot of pros to this. He is clearly a dynamic and talented director with a flair for big time action movies.

I mean, when you think about... what was the best SW movie of the last decade? It was Star Trek 2009. JJ is an admitted SW fan and he is a lifelong fan about to realize every lifelong fan's dream. It will be a passion project, unlike Trek, which was an AMAZING MOVIE.

People have talked about wanting Speilberg to direct one of the movies. What was the best Speilberg movie of the last decade? Super 8.

It stands to reason that Abrhams will bring along composer Michael Giacchino, who was my #1 choice assuming John Williams does not return.

Abrhams knows how to cast his movies.

When you think about it, he's the logical choice. He is very inspired and informed by Lucas/Spielberg and his movies reflect a lot of what many of us would like to see in SW.